Not enough kids can pass tests, the Dispatch reports. A year’s worth of learning did not take place. Far too few students graduate. Public education is “outright failing.” All but eight of the district’s 115 schools earned at least one “F” grade.

“The community can no longer pretend all is well here,” Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman says. “It is not.” He calls the academic report “disgraceful.” Ohio’s capital only met three of the 24 standards. “We as a community have failed this school and the children of this district.” The Dispatch hails the mayor for his courageous honesty.

Did the community really fail the children of Columbus’ district as Mayor Coleman claims? When ”the community” – the people – educate children instead of government bureaucracies, the children do much better at much less expense. If education were taken out of the government’s jurisdiction and put in the people’s lap, we’d still have prayer in school, wouldn’t we? It wasn’t a democratic consensus that ripped prayer and Ten Commandments out of public school classrooms. It was a federal judiciary that had no regard for constitutional limitations. If education were put in the people’s charge, we wouldn’t have gay propaganda shoved down our children’s throats. We wouldn’t have the transgendered son of two lesbian parents using the girl’s restroom under California state law. If education were put in the people’s jurisdiction, we wouldn’t have students punching teachers in the face, all the while being assured that they wouldn’t be spanked for it. We wouldn’t have teachers like John Freshwater fired keeping a Bible on their desk, or for presenting scientific criticism of the theory of evolution. No, it’s not the people enforcing “Next Generation Science Standards” on students, forcing even more Darwinian dogmatism in science classes at even earlier ages. According to a 2009 Zogby poll, 78% of American voters agree that “Biology teachers should teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, but also the scientific evidence against it.” It’s not the people that dreamed up a _________ per year per student educational system whose report card reads “Four F’s, Three D’s, and Two C’s.” Nope, it’s not the people of Columbus that have failed the children.

World Magazine reports in this week’s edition that the National Education Association’s annual convention in Atlanta saw “Common Core” curricula being presented as the remedy to the failing educational outcomes (as if more federal control will repair the disaster that federal control has caused.) The NEA conference attendees shouted down a brave proposal to prevent NEA funds from supporting abortion, and vigorously cheered a proposal to shove lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered history, people, and issues more thoroughly into their instruction. These, along with the godless judges, are the crooks at the steering wheel of our nation’s highly expensive, failing education system.

What did Mayor Coleman propose to fix the glaring deficiencies in the education deficiencies? “Pass a 9.01 million dollar levy this November.”

The schools run by the people – private schools and home schools – do a much better job at much less expense. The best private schools Mayor Coleman’s district cost half as much with far superior results. 80% of home schooling families spend less than $800 per year per child, with better testing scores, better graduation rates, and more students progressing to higher education. Yet Mayor Coleman thinks that he and the NEA can fix the problem if only they had more money.

Pretend your physician has hurt you more than he’s helped you, and has done so at great financial expense to you. As a matter of fact, he’s the most expensive physician within 150 miles! Yet in 24 measurements of quality of care, he’s only passed three of them. You upbraid him for his malpractice, and his remedy is “pay me more money and I’ll do better.” What?

How about firing him and get another physician?

Pretend your attorney has failed to defend you well from a false charge in court, and he’s cost you a fortune in the process. The billboard ensured you that he’s the best lawyer in town! Yet in 24 ways of measuring the attorney’s abilities, he only passed three of the measurements. You reprove him for failing you, for not keeping his promises, for costing you millions with nothing to show for it except time behind bars for something you didn’t do, and he rebuts, “If you only paid me more, I could do better!”

How about suing him for doing drugs when he’s defending you in court, and hiring another attorney?

Mayor Coleman proposed the city adopt a “Declaration of Independence” from the “old way of doing business.” I agree.

The “old way of doing business” is the state monopoly on public education. The “old way of doing business” is forcing even those who object to atheistic evolution theory to pay for the pagan education of other people’s kids upon pain of fine, prison, or property confiscation. The “old way of doing business” is forcing parents who are trying to teach their children abstinence, to fund the condom-distributing, abortion-drug-prescribing safe sex propaganda of their local public school. The “old way of doing business” is to have teachers read “Heather Has Two Mommies” to underage kids, and have them practice putting a condom on a wooden dummy, as Ohio’s safe sex education curricula recommends.

Thomas Jefferson said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” The “old way of doing business,” Mr. Mayor, is sinful and tyrannical, and your remedy is more sin and tyranny.

Let’s have a separation of school and state and see what the people can do. Before the advent of public education, the American colonies had a 97% literacy rate according to a study that President Thomas Jefferson ordered. The righteousness of our people gave them victory over Great Britain’s tyranny and Nazi Germany’s Holocaust – without all the suicides that characterize soldiers of the present generation. Noah Webster, our nations’ first education bureaucrat, said, “Education is useless without God and the Bible.” Education was never better when the people taught students to read instead of put on condoms, and when they taught them pray and memorize Scripture via the New England Primer, but thanks to the judiciary-approved pagans presently at the helm of public education’s ship, it’s been downhill ever since.

Let’s fire the government stooges and the condom-peddling homosexuals at the NEA, and let the people educate the children.